“Hiring” Is a Magic Word

I must admit I am shamelessly putting the word “hiring” in the title of this blog in order to see if my last blog was just a fluke. I got over 20 times the number of hits on the blog entitled “There’s More to Hiring Than Putting a Warm Butt in a Cold Seat.” My guess is that people searched the word “hire” in blog titles and found mine.
Let’s not waste this blog on just that experiment.

As a 63 year old, white, male I have been lucky (that’s probably not the correct word) when it comes to finding a position. In my 51 years of working I have held nearly 20 positions from paperboy, to actor; retail manager to athletic administrator and car sales man to radio announcer. The phrase jack of all trades but master of none truly applies to me.

The one trait that I have cultivated, that has helped me through my working life, is not to fear change. I have been fired 3 times and lost interest most of the other times. Even at 63 I am looking for a better job and dreaming about what I want to do when I grow up. My wife thinks I’m nuts because we are constantly getting letters of rejection back from all the places that I send job applications.

If you can keep your opportunities open, it will give you hope and excitement about life. Network, network, network all the time. Let your friends know that you are open to new opportunities. I wouldn’t pass this information along to people who might let your boss know. It’s amazing how vindictive some of them can be when they find that you are looking around. I have often said “loyalty is a two-way street,” but many bosses aren’t of the same opinion.

Those of you, who are currently looking for a position, be brave. Go outside of your field if necessary. Take a temp job. Do anything even if it means swallowing you pride. A friend of mine and a former cocaine addict, works as an assistant manager at a local grocery and makes just above minimum wage. When he finishes at the grocery he puts on a clown costume and stands in front of a pizza place waving and yelling for people in cars to turn in. When I asked him about the embarrassment of doing that job he told me, “it’s not as degrading as being a coke addict with no money to buy my kid food or clothes.”
Remember the old adage “it’s easier to get a job when you have a job.”

Be careful out there, though. There are lots of places that make a lot of money off of frightened out-of-work people. There are hundreds of places that will help you write the “perfect” resume for a fee. There are lots of places who claim to have dozens of high paying jobs in their back pocket all you have to do is pay a fee to take their class and those jobs are open to you. There are lots of places who claim to have the inside track to glamorous jobs are you have to do is pay a fee for their inside information. In many cases you can find those positions by looking in that industry’s online magazines.

Check with the Better Business Bureau before you spend a dime.

Don’t be afraid to take a position that you have NO background in. The internet is a wonderful place to get more information that you need. Most people are faking it anyway. Have you ever noticed that you care find an “expert” on any subject with an opinion on every side of the question. Most of us really don’t know what the hell we’re doing out here. The good thing about being 63 is that I’ve made more mistakes than most of you so I know what not to do. My mother-in-law who is 92 is one of America preeminent experts on everything. She’s been there, done that.

There is More to Hiring, Than a Warm Butt in a Cold Seat

I’ve mentioned my friend, Denise Wymore, in my blogs before http://denisewymore.wordpress.com/. She has a very insightful blog about the credit union industry and business culture.

In a recent blog about sales and service cultures she ended the blog with a quote that inspired me to write this blog…  ”You can’t teach caring. You either do or you don’t.”

In a nutshell that is why hiring well is so important. I use to be in the athletic department at a big university that was so proud of its school of human resources. Of all the kids that came through my office, that were enrolled in that program, I don’t remember one that was a people person. I’m sure they thought they were but actions tend to betray us all.

We seem to hire employees either on the “first come” basis or what I call the “due diligence” where we pretend that numbers, charts and a battery of questions answered correctly will point the magic finger at best hire. I’ve seen a lot of older, ugly, bald, black and fat competent people turned down using that method. I love those “60 minute” type shows, where they send in to a job interview a gorgeous woman with a mediocre resume. Then, later after outfitting the same woman with a fat suit, removing her makeup and giving her a sterling resume we almost always find the better looking version of woman gets the job. Some much for serious human resource work.

I use to get a kick out of how we hired a head coach in certain high profile sports. The athletic administration decided who they wanted or in many cases, the university president, then the name was sent to the HR department to rubber stamp the hire. Some times the wife of the coach was hired in the same way. The coach’s secretary always had to meet strict HR criteria (unless the new head coach was really pushy).

Well, maybe that is why an article appeared in my paper about a man in town who is an accountant with a masters degree who has been looking for a job since 2006. Oh, by the way he’s 76. We need to remember to listen to all potential employees. We need to put our prejudices behind use and hear who the person is… invest ourselves in the personal relationship with the interviewee. If we need a person who cares find out if this person really does care. If we need an accountant hire the best we can not the youngest, best looking or the first one in the door.

If you allowed a thought about our senior accountant to creep into your mind like…  “well he is little old”, “why would he need a job” or “he’s probably a little feeble ” maybe you should be your company’s interviewer for new employees.

Life After

A friend, Denise Wymore, http://denisewymore.wordpress.com/ wrote a blog this week about a time capsule which got me thinking. I write this blog (obviously not frequently enough) for myself and eventually for my family.

Recently a couple of great friends and my father-in-law passed away and another contracted cancer which started my mind rolling around thoughts of my own mortality. It happens more as I get older.

I would like to leave one thought (mind you, no one has told me that I’m dying) for my family and friends who know I am not much of a believer in “life after death.” As a minister’s son I have a pretty good knowledges of the Christian scriptures. My father encouraged me, also, to look into other religious beliefs. I think of myself as a Christian because I try to follow the teachings of Jesus, but I find it hard to beleave in heaven and hell. If you, my family and friend are concerned that I may go to the later let me calm your concerns.

I am not sure if there is a God. But, if God is our father as I am a father, I have no fear of going to hell. Why would God, the best father in the universe, allow anything like damnation to happen to his son. I wouldn’t do that to my children, no matter what they did. Surely God is a better father than I am.

Rest peacefully tonight my family and friends. Death is part of life and if you have tried to follow the tenants of your religion, filled your life with joy and forgiveness then if there is a God, when you pass you will be in good hands. If there is no God you will rest the peaceful rest of eternity.

I truly enjoy this journey with you.

Agapae (brotherly love)

There is something wonderful about having young love in the house again. Recently my youngest son came home with his girlfriend… a pretty girl from California with ambition, intelligence, a sweet sense of humor and a real closeness to my son. The two of them held hands, each other, and giggled at the other’s stupid jokes. The entire house warmed up.

As a father I love to see my children happy, no matter how old they get. This visit sparked memories of my younger days and the excitement of young love but it also held up a mirror to show me how wonderful the nearly 40 years of marriage to my wife has been. We still hold hands once in a while. We kiss every night and several times during the day. She is truly my best friend.

I thank my parents for insisting that marraige is a life long commitment. I grew up in the “free love” times and practiced its theories to the enth degree. There have been dozens of time that we would have seperated if we weren’t married or if we didn’t believe in it being a life long commitment.

I have no problem with people living together. It is their choice. But, for me and my wife, marriage, the vows and contract, have kept us together so that we can enjoy watching together our children grow, love, hurt, work, have their own children and face their futures together.

I am a fully amerced romantic. I cry at parades, watching children play, anytime someone shows great joy. I believe that the world would be far better if we would reward good works, empathy, and transparency. I am not a fool… I know people are wired differently. But, since all of the major religions of the world believe in loving each other and treating each other with respect, I find events like the crusades, jihad, and nation building totally hypocritical.

If only I could bottle that feeling I had this past weekend watching young and mature love warm my home.

Great Another Strategic Planning Session… where’s my IPod

In reading a blog by Denise Wymore http://denisewymore.wordpress.com/ the other day she hit on one of the sad truths of business today. She is a renown credit union “culture consultant… her words not mine. I’ve heard her speak several times and her presentation is always new and relaxed. Her post, “Planning to Plan” explains a weakness in most strategic planning session.

Denise said, “I have never SWOT-ted people (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). I think that’s kind of a waste of time. Why? Because I usually see the same answers: Strengths – Our board. Our employees. Our members. Weaknesses – Branch locations. Technology. Training. Opportunities – Technology! Threats – Economy. Regulation. Banks.”

I have been involved in several of these so called “strategic planning” sessions over the years and in several industries. This is what happens. The “boss” calls for an all day session (or worse… 2 days) to go over the future plans of the business. Lots of expensive food is ordered for the board or the VIPs in the business. If the workers are involved hamburgers are brought in. Mind you, I have usually been in the expensive food group so I’m not complaining about that. Well, yes I am.

The workers are almost always separated from the board, except sometimes there is a late session, where the board shows how much they care about the workers by listening to their ideas and then explaining why they won’t work. Usually, it’s because the employees are not smart enough to understand the big picture.

I’m changing the word “workers” to “employees”. It seems less communistic.

Discussions start about the strengths. Most of the time this deteriorates into a credit grabbing, mutual admiration society meeting.

Now, there is a break for food  and a pee.

Then there is a turn toward weaknesses. This discussion quite often turns into veiled finger pointing (sometimes not so veiled) and comments about problems that can’t or won’t be changed because no one has the guts to do anything without a committee study being done. You know where that will end up…  or it costs too much.

Lunch break…

Then we turn to opportunities. Many times these are pet projects that will profit someone on the board. Or, they’re too expensive and we’ll do a study to determine the ROI. Excuse me for a minute while I puke……………………………….. 

We’ll take a break because someones butt has fallen asleep and the afternoon food is here.

My personal favorite is the next topic, threats. Or, as I call it, “the sky is falling session.”  There are a thousand reasons why we can’t do anything and we need to hunker down and wait this this passes.

Now after a breif snack we’ll do what we have wanted to do all day… the MISSION STATEMENT. How many ways can you say we’ll do everything for everybody in every way.

Now after dinner we’ll invite the employees back to TELL them what we decided to do. There is really no need for this session because we told them the same thing last year and the year before, and the year before that. The staff has a few good ideas, but we probably can’t do any of them because there is not enough money this year.

In 360 days we’ll start the same process by having an administrative meeting to let the “boss” complain that we haven’t completed the plans from last year. The senior staff will run around for 3 days proving how much was done, and creating a diffinative document to cover their collective ass.

It would be so much easier if we had one meeting every ten years, decided what we do better than everybody else and concentrate on doing that better, hired people who shared our values, and put our energies into building that culture, then telling everyone who asked… who we are.

It’s Impossible to Go to the Moon, and I can Prove It

Number pushers are always behind the curve. It is a cowardly way to live and work. Hiding behind numbers is a way for many people (especially those who the “Peter Principle” applies) to slow work to a level that they can handle. Goethe once said, “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

I will admit that my foolhardy desire to move fast, furiously and forward toward my dreams has gotten my tit in a ringer many times. Ask my wife. She, by the way, is my voice of reason. I get angry at her at times for her shyness and timidity, as well as the rolling of her eyes when I propose an idea that is little more than a pipe dream. But, she does give me reason to step back occassionally and see if there is any water in the pool before I dive.

Life is better (at least for me) if I take the next step, NOW. That way I have few regrets about things left undone out of fear. We all need to measure our steps a little, but to become frozen in life because of the “what ifs”, “who cares” and “stress tests” in this over measured society, is not fully living. I don’t think we should all go sky diving, but to rationalize everything and apply “prudence” to every decision makes “Norm” a dull boy.

If the pencil pushers and naysayer had their way we would have never visited the moon, sailed across the oceans, started Walmart for God’s sake..

Take the next step, NOW.

We Can Be So Much Better

Couldn’t we be so much better if we quit measuring our words and said what we believed. And, on the oppose side allowed people to believe what they believe. Life is too short to worry about what other people think of you. BE YOURSELF.

“You Haven’t Done Nothin”

Those of you that know me know that I unapologetically support our new President, but for 99% of our politicians the words of an old Stevie Wonder song seem to apply perfectly;

We are amazed but not amused
By all the things you say that you’ll do
Though much concerned but not involved
With decisions that are made by you

But we are sick and tired of hearing your song
Telling how you are gonna change right from wrong
‘Cause if you really want to hear our views
“You haven’t done nothing”!

It’s not too cool to be ridiculed
But you brought this upon yourself
The world is tired of pacifiers
We want the truth and nothing else

And we are sick and tired of hearing your song
Telling how you are gonna change right from wrong
‘Cause if you really want to hear our views
“You haven’t done nothing”!…

Isn’t it time that we quite calling each other names, clean up the parliamentary mess we call congress, throw out the lobbyists… their talking points and money and start thinking for ourselves. We need to quit acting like the grade school kids that push and shove to be first on the school bus. No one has a monopoly on the truth. Over ninety percent of the country professes to believe in God but Christian’s and Muslims ought to be ashamed because it is obvious that most worship at the alter of greed and definitely not Love, on which your religions are based.

A Message by George Carlin:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things. We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.

We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less. These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.

These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete…

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever. Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side. Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent.

Remember, to say, ‘ I love you ‘ to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you. Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again. Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind. AND

ALWAYS REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Will Someone give me an “AMEN” for George’s deep thoughts.

A place to go for Inspiration

This will be a very short blog. I have been following a website for a couple of years because I love inspirational quotes. The website is “Simple Truths” and the founder is Mac Anderson. It is a site that sells books, movies and other uplifting items. The neat part of the website is a section of FREE inspirational moves that you can watch online. Each one takes about 3 minutes and can start your day with a lift and there is no hidden sales pitch behind giving you those movies FREE.

Try it out at http://www.simpletruths.com/movies.asp